Lou used to drink tea and eat chocolate while blogging, but now she's on a weight loss mission to better health for herself. She blogs about gift ideas, weight loss, making money, Arbonne oh and zombies!

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How to Defeat a Zombie

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A Zombie Hunter’s Weapons of Choice

Technically you can’t kill a zombie as they aren’t actually alive. You can stop them from lurching towards you and attempting to feast on you however.

As blood no longer pumps through their body aiming for their heart is pointless instead you need to go for their head. From a gun to a baseball bat there are lots of weapons you can use to destroy a zombie. Even a stake, more commonly associated with vampires can work really well on a zombie.

Let’s have a look at a few ideas so that you can choose your zombie hunter weapon of choice.

The Baseball Bat

A Classic Zombie Hunter Weapon of Choice

A baseball bat is quite a classic weapon when it comes to taking down zombies, but it’s not the most effective one so why is it one of the first things that springs to people’s minds? The availability of course! Most homes seem to have a baseball bat in them which is why if you’re caught unawares and find you’re suddenly in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse you can usually grab a baseball bat until you can get hold of another weapon.

One on one a baseball bat is quite good to use – swing it at the head to destroy the zombie or if you’re a little squeamish about doing that then hitting them in the knees or the spine can send them to the ground in order for you to run away. After you’ve come across a few I predict you’ll get over feeling squeamish about destroying them!

The problem with a baseball bat is that if you come across a crowd of zombies they’ll be able to overcome you before you can take them all out.

A good secondary or emergency weapon, but look for something better for your primary weapon of choice.

A Cricket Bat

Of course if you live outside of the US then baseball is no longer a national sport. In a number of places cricket is very popular and the pros and cons of using a cricket bat is pretty much the same as using a baseball bat.

I had to include it, however, because they use it in one of my favorite zombie movies – Shaun of the Dead. I should probably add that I loved this movie more for the sense of humor than the zombie action

The Crossbow

Daryl’s Weapon of Choice on The Walking Dead

The crossbow is a great choice as a defensive weapon against zombies and not just because Daryl makes it look good either! Unlike a bow and arrow which takes a lot of training to master you can teach someone to be proficient with a crossbow in very little time.

The drawback with a crossbow is that you do need to have strength to pull the string back, it’s really not as easy as it’s portrayed on movie and television screens. There is also a time lag for reloading an arrow every time which means it’s not the best if you find yourself surrounded by zombies.

The biggest advantage with the crossbow, however is that it is quiet which means you can easily pick off a zombie on it’s own without attracting hoards of other undead to the area. Another advantage is that you can reuse the arrows which is very handy as there’s nothing worse than running out of ammo for your weapon.

If you’re a Walking Dead fan then you might be interested to know that according to Norman Reedus the crossbow he uses on the show is a Stryker Strykezone. Originally in the first couple of seasons they were using a different crossbow that wasn’t as easy to use.
This is a real weapon so don’t get if you just want to dress up like Daryl for a fancy dress event, if however you want to go hunting for squirrels or want to be prepared for a zombie uprising then this is something you should think about getting.

A Gun

A Noisy, But Effective Weapon of Choice

A gun is certainly a weapon that will destroy a zombie, but there are drawbacks to using one. The first (and very important) drawback is the noise, zombies will hear a gunshot and will descend on the location quicker than Aunt Martha can make it to the dessert bar!

Unlike arrows bullets can’t be reused which means that you have to constantly find more ammo for your gun. Also, unlike how it seems on the television or at the movies you can’t just pick up a gun and successfully aim, fire and destroy your target! If you’re thinking of relying on a gun then get yourself some target practice in now before the undead ‘rise’.

There are lots of different types of guns available and the advantages to them if you have a good ammo supply is that you can shoot from a distance (the distance depending on the type of gun) and if you have a good aim you can take out a larger number fairly quickly (again it depends on your individual gun so ask the appropriate questions when getting one).

How To Kill Zombies T-Shirts

Is Your Favorite Zombie Weapon Featured?

Let’s take a moment to enjoy these t-shirts before we go back to looking at our weapons of choice for destroying the undead – I like the old school t-shirt, although as I’ve mentioned probably not the best methods in reality!

The Axe & The Bow

Kicking Zombies Old School Style!

Because of two of the t-shirts I’ve featured above I thought I had better make a quick note about the merits and problems with using an axe or a bow to try and defeat a zombie.

Most of the problems with using an axe are the same as using a baseball bat or cricket bat – one on one is okay, but in a crowd you’re not going to get out of there alive! The axe also has another problem in that sometimes it will get stuck in a zombie’s head before it’s done it’s job – if you thought getting it stuck in a block of wood was frustrating imagine how you’d feel if the same thing happened when you were fighting to stay alive!

The bow actually takes a lot more skill and strength then people realize, it’s not easy for just about anyone to pick it up and find they can aim and hit their target to start with let alone with enough strength to penetrate their skull. Just because they’re undead doesn’t make their skulls go soft, you need to send your arrow with a lot of force behind it. A crossbow is a much better option unless you’re Geena Davis in which case a bow would be great – reuasable ammo, quiet weapon…..perfect in fact!

The Knife & The Sword

Stabbing and Decapitating the Undead

I’ve included the knife and sword together here as we’re talking about blades, but the difference between a small dagger and a katana style sword like Michonne’s in The Walking Dead are totally different.

A knife such as a dagger or hunting knife has a disadvantage in the fact that you have to be in really close range to use it and that means that if your knife gets stuck in the skull then you’re in really big trouble. You need to have enough force behind the knife to let if penetrate the skull in the first place and it’s really not hard to imagine the knife getting stuck in there is it?

When it comes to a longer sword like a katana it raises the odds because you’re a little further away from the zombie with a longer blade, but swinging that blade around and taking out half a dozen zombies without breaking a sweat may work for Micchone on the Walking Dead, but in reality could it be a good weapon?

Apparently according to experts it could be really good and could easily decapitate a zombie, but and here’s that little three lettered word again! You need to know how to use it as it takes skill and a lot of training to be able to wield it effectively AND you need to be fit, it takes a lot of fitness and core body strength to keep swinging the sword.

The Stake

Not Just For Killing Off Vampires!

As I mentioned the stake in the introduction I thought I had better add mention of it here. Obviously it’s going to be hard to pierce a skull with a stake, but if you have a lot of upper body strength you could try and poke the stake through one of their eyes in an upward motion and it could be lights out. The handy thing is that you can fashion a stake out of a picket fence or a railing so they’re pretty easy to come by. Not an ideal primary weapon, but because of availability I would definitely add stakes to my back up artillery………..it would also be handy if you came across any vampires as well, although that would be a really bad day to contemplate!

Hi I’m Louanne aka Lou16, welcome to my blog! I just wanted to let you know that this post may contain affiliate links which means, at no cost to YOU, that I might receive compensation if you purchase something through a link on my site. In the online world this is called ‘affiliate marketing’ and is a very common way that bloggers make their money, if you want to find out more then check out What is Affiliate Marketing? If you want to see my full affiliate disclosure and the other ‘legal stuff’ then click here.